The paper reviews the literature on information needs of parents and teachers of hearing impaired children and of the general public regarding hearing impairments. Survey results from a descriptive study on national patterns of information seeking and providing regarding hearing impairment are summarized in terms of information inquiries received by 1,057 organizations and information responses provided, and information needs of 550 individuals concerned with hearing impairment. Among findings were that 72% of the requests to organizations concerned local resources; topics of greatest requests included deafness in general, manual communication/sign language, lipreadng/speechreading/speech, and telecommunication devices; slightly over half of the organizations had a telecommunication device; and approximately one-third of all responding individuals appeared to be less than satisfied with the information services they received. Data suggested the need for wider dissemination of available information to individuals and information providers, and for focal points through which inquiries can be channeled so that requests are handled by those information providers best prepared to respond appropriately. Summaries of nine information centers and systems are provided. (CL)